


a missing piece

by vdova



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BuckyNat Secret Santa, F/M, Missing Scene, WELL HERE YOU GO, hey remember that reunion we never got?, minor fix-it fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-08 17:01:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17390210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vdova/pseuds/vdova
Summary: After finding a place to land after the airport fight, Natasha has to face a ghost from her past. A ghost she's not sure even remembers her.





	a missing piece

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mrs_Nicole](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Mrs_Nicole).



> So I got the prompt of "as long as it has a happy ending" and... I mostly write angst. Which was hilarious to me. Anyways, here's two scenes that were totally deleted from Infinity War, mmhm, totally.

When Natasha finally got word to Steve about wanting to seek refuge wherever he’d found himself, she wasn’t sure what to expect. Keeping her fingers in her networks had gotten harder after the airport, but there was enough intel coming through to paint her a not so fun picture of the fall out. Scott and Clint found a way to get back to their families (she got a message to Clint to let him know she was okay; she couldn’t imagine what Tony had told him). The others, however, were still a mystery. It didn’t take Natasha as long as Steve figured it would to find him. 

He really needed to stop underestimating her.

The flight back to Wakanda was quiet. Steve looked far worse for wear. Tony had given a hint about what happened in Siberia; Steve looked better than she imagined James did.

“He told me about you,” Steve finally said, breaking the quiet after they broke the shield surrounding the country. It had to have been planned. Natasha was struck speechless by the hidden cityscape at the same moment as Steve’s revelation. She could play dumb, ask who he was talking about, but playing dumb didn’t work on Steve any longer. He took the silence as an acknowledgement of his statement and continued. “When you gave me that dossier after DC, you said you used contacts to find it. But you didn’t, did you? You already had it. You tried to cover up your notes, but I recognized them. You used to write notes to yourself in Russian.”

Natasha stayed quiet. He was right. Of course he was right. After all their conversations of no longer lying, Natasha lied about a pretty large portion of her life. She sat back in her seat and stared straight ahead as Steve landed the plane. “You’re right, I had the dossier. And I knew him before. Back when neither of us were our own person.”

Steve sighed heavily, clearly ready to launch into one of his mini tirades about how Natasha wasn’t telling the truth, but she stopped him. “When I told you about Odessa, it was accurate. I never said it was the first time I encountered him. It was the first time after I got away from the Red Room that I encountered him. After that…” she trailed off, motioning vaguely. “The dossier was the best I could do. I couldn’t run after him while bleeding out. Didn’t stop me from trying.” 

The last comment got Steve to smile. Natasha mirrored the expression. She’d missed the casual smiles he used to give her. But the smile didn’t last. “Buck’s not here.” It took Natasha a moment to register. She twisted in her seat to look at Steve, brows knit together. “He needed some time after the fight with Tony and after he found out the programming was still active. Away from everyone. No contact from anyone he knows unless it pertains to getting the programming out of his head.”

Natasha’s entire idea of reuniting with James shattered around his ears. The idea had been stressful to begin with, and now that it couldn’t happen, it made her feel hollow. “Then- what can I do? For him, for T’challa, for anyone to make up for what I did.” 

The words came so easily it took Steve a moment of shock before he could respond. “I- well, Sam and I were wanting to start looking for last bits of Hydra around the world. Doing things that Avengers should’ve been doing in the first place.”

Natasha gave him a lopsided smile. “You mean like some kind of secret Avengers?”

Steve returned the look. “Exactly like that.”

It was a pleasant distraction. There was always someone that needed their help, and hell if Natasha missed that. After the first time someone picked her out quickly, she cut her hair short again and dyed it blonde. The boys were slightly harder when it came to disguises; everyone knew who Falcon was. But it was helping people, and it kept her from worrying about James too much. 

Until there were aliens, and couldn’t they have one year where things didn’t go sideways in the weirdest of ways?

For the first time in months, James wasn’t in the forefront of Natasha’s mind when they flew back to Wakanda. There was a war at their doorsteps. Again. Natasha wrung her hands together the entire way back, trying to wrap her mind around what they were facing. New York had seemed impossible. And this was somehow beyond that. 

It wasn’t until they had disembarked and started their hellos did Natasha even notice the man in blue off to the side. He looked different from the last time she’d seen him. The dark circles under his eyes weren’t deep as bruises any longer and he didn’t look like death was chasing him. She shifted behind Steve almost instinctively. There was too much weight sitting on her shoulders about a reunion that may or may not end well. Too many chances. Too many-

“Natalia?”

Her name, spoken in the strange and stilted Russian accent, sent a flutter through Natasha’s heart. Steve took a step back to allow eye contact, offering Natasha a small smile before taking Sam’s arm and pulling him away. The rest of the newcomers shifted away as Natasha’s eyes met Bucky’s for the first time in decades.

A silence fell over the pair. Bucky was waiting for Natasha to speak; Natasha was waiting for her heart to stop beating a million miles a minute. It took an out of place from the departing group for Natasha to jump start herself and move forward, pulling Bucky into a crushing hug. “I saw you in cryo,” she said hoarsely, her voice sounding shattered from an attempt to not cry, “They told me you were getting sent to Siberia. They wiped my memories, I only…” she trailed off. It was almost too much, too fast. Years without him, then having to face him down like a criminal, then thinking he was back but didn’t remember her. 

“It’s okay.” Two words from him, and Natasha let herself start crying. Because it was okay. It was finally okay for them to just be. “Steve told me what happened after the airport. I thought you didn’t remember me. I thought Stark had found out and was using you on purpose.”

“No one else knew.” Natasha pulled back to look up at his face, trying to commit the minor changes to memory. “It was my secret, once my memories returned. Hell, James, I thought I would never see you again.”

A sarcastic smirk lit Bucky’s face. “Never knew how badly I wanted to hear you call me that. It’s nice to have a name.”

A moment, a beat, and Bucky leaned down to kiss Natasha gently on the lips. There was a whoop behind them, which caused the pair to grin and Bucky to murmur, “Sam, I’m sure,” against her lips before pulling away. His flesh hand traced through her hair, putting the strands behind her ear. “It’s good to be home,” he said softly.

Natasha cocked her head to the side, “You consider Wakanda home now?”

“No, Natalia,” his hand came to rest on her shoulder, fingers brushing along the back of her neck, “I consider you my home.”


End file.
